End of the Line

#35 - The Olympians

Chapter 35 - The Olympians
published: Wednesday, 18 September 2019

Piper kept the stony mask of determination on her face. Pontus' challenging tone was meant to provoke Annabeth, and it seemed to be working. Debating whether she would have to tackle Annabeth to the ground before she started a fight they couldn't win.

The daughter of Athena was always calculating, but ever since Percy's disappearance, she'd adopted a certain recklessness to her behaviour. As if she didn't care if she lived or died.

Fortunately, Piper's theory wouldn't be put to the test today. She felt herself become unbalanced, teetering to the side and nearly falling into Hazel.

"Did you feel that?" Hazel whispered.

She did. The floor was rumbling — no, the whole room, and probably the castle too. Her eyes followed the small cracks on the wall that slowly started to spiral outwards.

"What are you doing?" Annabeth demanded furiously, holding out her dagger threateningly. One glimpse of Pontus' worried expression and Piper immediately knew that this wasn't his doing.

A resounding explosion rang through Piper's ears and knocked her to the floor, leaving her floating aimlessly in the water. As she scrambled to see what had caused it, Piper found a gaping hole in the cracked wall, their friends bursting through.

"Mother!"

Piper turned around to see Annabeth's wide eyes as she gazed at the two new companions now accompanying the four boys. The large dragon tumbled to the floor and transformed back into Frank along the way.

A slim woman with curly brown hair to her waist and a menacing glare. She had to be Annabeth's mother — Athena, the goddess of wisdom. There was a man with a scruffy beard and overalls paddling rapidly who Piper recognised as Hephaestus. The god landed on his feet, two saws appearing in either hand.

"No!" Pontus shouted, horrified as he leapt out of his seat. "What have you done?"

Hephaestus flashed the primordial a challenging smirk as he drew back and flung the saws at Pontus.

For a moment, Piper's heart leapt with hope. But of course, Pontus simply snapped his fingers and disappeared from sight, the last image of him scowling angrily. The saws passed through the image and soared through the air aimlessly.

"No!" Annabeth yelled, fury flashing in her grey eyes. The throne exploded suddenly, leaving a heap of rubble. Piper jumped in shock, whipping her head around to see what had caused it.

Another rumble shook the castle, and Piper actually stumbled into Hazel this time. The two girls fell to the ground in a tangled heap.

"What happened?" Annabeth demanded, whirling around. "Why's the castle shaking?"

Piper watched in amusement as Percy blushed and winced. "Uh," he said hesitantly. "We, uh, kind of blew up a volcano."

Annabeth's mouth opened and closed like a fish, no words. Finally, she decided on just shaking her head and turning away. Thalassa remained at the foot of a now empty throne.

"The castle will crumble in on us if we don't get out of here," Athena said sharply.

Frank started ushering the others out, leading the way back to the surface. Percy and the gods followed them.

"On it," Annabeth muttered impatiently as she hurried to kneel in front of Thalassa. She pulled out a golden key from the pocket of her jeans and started to unlock the padlocks of the chains.